Rethinking Literature

[DragonFaerie]

I think I might be over-planning our literature work. I'm going to do history-related read alouds every day in addition to the kids (DD9- 4th, DS8- 3rd) each doing their own independent reading. The problem comes with how much "work" to assign for each book. Last year we did our read alouds and then did some type of assignment each week, either a narration or a worksheet or something. But, we did nothing with the books they read independently. This year I am wanting the kids to do more work with their independent reading (and I do mean more work- answering questions and doing writing assignments every few chapters, etc.). However, I'm thinking if I add work with our read alouds, too, that will be overloading them. We already have a pretty full curriculum. How do ya'll decide how much work to do and when enough is enough?

[morosophe]

Last week I started How to Report on Books, which is a (very basic) introduction to literary analysis for first and second graders. Each week, you read an example (or two for, say, fiction and nonfiction), talk about whatever aspect of the book is the subject of the lesson, and then give your kids the (free reproducible) worksheet to fill out for their book that week.

 

Since my son *hates* writing, this was about the most I was going to ask of him.

 

DITHOR looks extremely attractive too, though, and I'll probably pick it up someday when I have multiple kids to teach at the same time.

 

I'd like an answer to that "How much is too much?" question, too!

[HappyCamper]

I have been wrestling with this too. We are going to have our first year of homeschool next year and I am mapping out the writing projects (book reports, poetry, research reports, etc. In my DC's schools for 3rd, 4th, and 5thgrade, they only seemed to produce one sample of each of these each year (except for poetry in 4th grade). In 5th grade, DS did weekly detailed responses, e.g. One paragraph responses to five questions to literature he was reading.

 

Next year, My plan is to have one "big" written project (related to readings) each month, e.g. Biography summary, book report, research report. And then also have one set of short answer questions weekly. I want Tom focus On .verbal summaries

[DragonFaerie]

I'm not even looking at this from a writing perspective. The work for each book is a combination of multiple choice questions, short answer, etc. I'm thinking in terms of comprehension and giving thought and consideration to what they've read rather than writing skills. We'll be doing a separate writing curriculum. I don't want to pile on the literature-related assignments but I'm also having a hard time just reading to them without following up with assignments. I think I'm looking for permission. Maybe if I think of our read alouds as part of history rather than literature I'll feel better. :D

[oraetstudia]

I would allow most of their free reading to be left alone and not make them do anything with it. I always hated school reading and even novels I would have enjoyed and read for fun, became a lot less fun when tested. And I was a German lit. major in college and went to grad school for it too!

[Chelli]

I am doing this year what you are describing. For whatever we are studying in history, I have a read aloud for dd, but she also has an independent book that I assign her to read about the history topic as well. Basically for our read aloud I just ask her basic questions about what happened in the chapter we read. Then I have her pull one of these narration prompts out of our narration jar to answer: http://jimmiescollage.com/downloads/general/narration-starters.pdf

 

For her independent assigned book reading she will do a book report about the book when she is done reading it. I use these free book report forms http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/BookReports/BookReport.html to help her gather her thoughts and then she gets to pick how she presents her book to the family. Since my dd is very artsy she usually will make a poster, perform a scence from the book, do a play using her sister and various stuffed animals/Barbies, etc. She has a week to work through the book report form and plan her presentation.

 

So far this approach has worked really well (dd LOVES the narration jar and her book report projects), and we are planning on continuing it next year. Starting in 4th grade we will probably begin using DITHOR for a more formal approach to lit analysis. HTH.

 

ETA: DD has free reading that I do not quiz her on or even talk about other than a quick, "How do you like your book?" Her free reading are books she picks out from the library to read in her free time. The above readings that I mentioned are ones scheduled into our school day. I agree with other posters about free reading time. Let them pick the books and just enjoy!

Edited June 27, 2011 by pw23kids

[Critterfixer]

I think free reading should be free.

[Jen+4dc]

I would allow most of their free reading to be left alone and not make them do anything with it. I always hated school reading and even novels I would have enjoyed and read for fun, became a lot less fun when tested. And I was a German lit. major in college and went to grad school for it too!

:iagree:

 

I think free reading should be free.

:iagree:

 

YMMV, I listened to SWB speak this weekend on lit analysis and totally agreed with her that in the elementary grades the goal is to love reading and learn a few terms like fiction, non-fiction, biography, fable. She suggested (see WTM for the actual questions) that in elementary it should be nothing but a retelling of the plot. In mid school you move into 1) Who was the main character? 2) What did they want? 3) What kept them from getting it? 4) How did they overcome (or not) the problem? They write a 1 page paper answering these questions (after you discuss) once a week or so. You don't really need to do more than that till you get to high school. That's where you identify literary elements and analyze how well the author used them.

 

I would be very careful not to teach the idea that whenever you finish reading a book there will be something unpleasant (worksheet, paper to write, etc) to do. IMHO, that kills the joy of reading. You can always just talk about the book orally and ask for a written narration if you really feel they need more work.

 

For whatever my opinion is worth.:tongue_smilie:

[DragonFaerie]

I guess I wasn't very clear. I'm not giving them assignments for free reading books. We have two books going for school reading, one that I read aloud to them (based on our history studies) and one that is assigned for their school reading. And with the school reading, they won't have assignments to do for every book. I have a list of 16 books each that they will read and 1/2 to 3/4 of them will have assignments. Any free reading they do is their choice and done strictly for fun.

 

I think I'm going to avoid assignments for our read alouds and try to keep those for enlightment and enjoyment instead. I'll have them do assignments for their independent reading instead.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys! You've made me feel better by realizing that I don't have to make "school work" for everything we do. :D